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| (Photo= Yonhap news) |
[Alpha Biz= Reporter Kim Minyoung] On the 7th, Hanwha Investment & Securities adjusted its target price for NAVER from 260,000 won to 280,000 won, citing expectations for the continued improvement in NAVER's performance.
Hanwha Investment & Securities stated, "In the first quarter, NAVER's operating profit was 4.393 trillion won, exceeding the consensus (market average forecast) by 13%." They highlighted that despite being an off-season, the growth in homepage and place ads bidding drove sales growth, showing better performance than previously expected.
They further commented, "Revenue recovery is evident through app renovations," and anticipated that the effects of advanced targeting and attracting small and medium-sized advertisers would become apparent in the second half of the year. They also expected the exclusion of the Jet.com subsidiary's financials from the second quarter to have a positive impact.
Hanwha Investment & Securities expressed confidence in strong cost control effects in the second quarter and limited possibilities of additional negative factors in the short term. Accordingly, they forecasted that the second-quarter operating profit would increase by approximately 154 billion won compared to the first quarter, reaching 4.547 trillion won.
Moreover, they revised their annual operating profit estimate for this year to 1.802 trillion won, up 7% from the previous projection.
Alphabiz Kim Minyoung (kimmy@alphabiz.co.kr)
